Open Doors
by Caladria101
Summary: The fluffy SJ oneshot with two chapters. Feedback liked, concrit loved, worshipped and nourished.
1. Chapter 1

She opened the door to find a USAF Major General in uniform on the other side.

With pizza and a movie.

"Hey. Carter. Whatcha doin'?"

He had that insanely cocky grin on him. The one he wore when he was about to toss some sarcastic, hilarious one-liner into the face of their imminent death. And although his entire body language screamed as casual as you could get in Class As, the grin told her different.

"Answering the door, Sir."

They stared at each other for a second, unwilling or unable to break the silence.

"So…. is answering the door taking up all your spare time these days or have you got time for a break from it?"

She stepped back, motioning him to come in. She wasn't sure why Jack O'Neill had turned up on her doorstep after two months in Washington, but there was no law against her having an old friend, her former CO even, come into her house with pizza and a movie.

The man in question was now stood uncomfortably in her sitting room, still holding his offerings like a shield in front of him.

"So…." They both began at the same time.

Uncomfortable silence, take two, she noted with that part of her mind that managed to stay detached.

"How's Washington?" she finally asked. From the slight grimace he couldn't repress, as well as the careworn look on his face, she could guess the answer. _ When had he started looking so tired all the time?_

"Its full of politicians, you know? Fun. You know I adore politicians, Carter." He suddenly put the pizza down. "You know, technically I'm on vacation time here, Carter. Mind if I do something?"

And with that he disappeared towards her backyard.

Frowning in puzzlement, she followed.

By the time she reached her back door, he was stood in the middle of her lawn. As she watched, he yanked the hat from his head and neatly drop kicked it into her neighbour's garden with a massive grin on his face. He then took his jacket off and sent it the same way with a powerful throw.

He returned at a more leisurely pace to her side.

"The uniform's gone, Carter, I'm on vacation, so would ya stop calling me "Sir" and sit down and watch the movie with me?" He paused, and raised an eyebrow at the woman leaning on the railing in front of him.

"And I thought we had a rule about giggling!"

An hour later, they sat on her sofa with the empty pizza box on the floor between them, and The Matrix playing.

"Carter, what's going on?"

She sat up, startled, having been engrossed in her own thoughts over Jack's strange appearance.

"Huh?"

"The movie, Carter. I don't get it."

Glad he hadn't become telepathic, Sam waded through the intricacies of the plotline until she noticed that Jack's eyes had glazed over and he was smiling. Not grinning, smiling.

"What?"

He blinked. "Huh?"

"You're not listening, are you?"

"Am too!"

She gave him a stern look.

"I missed it," he confessed, not meeting her eyes.

Now it was her turn to look baffled.

"You. Explaining stuff. Even when I don't get it."

Their eyes met. There were worse things, she supposed, to start out with.

They both moved the few inches that would allow him to loop an arm around her.

After a few moments silence, he spoke.

"Hey, Carter? How well do you know your neighbours? 'Cos I'm gonna need that hat and jacket back at the end of the week."


	2. Part Two of One

He stood waiting patiently, no outward sign of his disquiet showing, except an occasional, irritated glance to his left. To the man who opened the door to face him, he looked nothing more than an overgrown boy wanting to fetch his ball back from the neighbour's garden.

Which wasn't exactly too far from the truth.

"Hello?"

Jack gave what he hoped was a winning smile. "Hey, there. I'm a … uh.. friend…of Sam's," he said, waving a hand to indicate that the Sam he meant was the Sam who lived next door.

Which strictly speaking, was true. He was her friend. He was also… her… _friend…_but he really wasn't about to explain that. Hell, he wasn't even sure that he could explain it to himself. It wasn't like they'd… He didn't know. And he had a horrible feeling that he'd be asking Carter to explain. Crap.

The look he got in return suggested that Sam's neighbour had taken "friend" as… _"friend"_.

"What can I do for ya?" the man replied easily, his stance taking a turn for the casual.

The hands went in the pockets as Jack rocked back on his heels, glancing into the middle distance for a second before returning his gaze with a slight grimace to the man in front of him. He wished he'd worn the sunglasses, now.

"Uhm… Something of mine may have… _accidentally…_ made its way into your back yard," he admitted, glancing sharply to his left again after his confession. That little… She was there. She was not only making him do this, but she was watching him do it, and enjoying it too. That was…

_That was laughter…_

That was… _mean._

He tore his attention away from his tormenter to the patiently waiting man, realising he'd missed something. Probably something important.

Having followed his gaze, Sam's neighbour – whatever his name was – repeated his question. "What was it?"

"More like… them," Jack admitted uneasily. "As in a jacket… and a cover… of my uniform…" He looked at the other man hopefully. "Mind if I just grab 'em?"

He got a confused look in return. And he _swore_…. A quick glance told him that he was right as well – maybe he liked her better when she couldn't practically howl with laughter at him.

"Sure. Go ahead." And following the frankly still dubious man – and again Jack had to groan in frustration that he couldn't have thought of a better way to impress her (what was he thinking, really? They'd known each other _how many_ years and he felt the need to show off like a teenager? Not show off. _Break the ice_. That's all he'd been doing. He was such an ass sometimes).

Well, there was his jacket, all messily crumpled up in the middle of a flowerbed (and he had a meeting with the Joint Chiefs and accountants on Thursday as well – he really should have thought this through.) And the cover…

Crap.

The cover was in a tree. Obviously. Because there was a God and he hated Jack. Well, there were several would be gods that hated Jack, but he really couldn't see them lying in wait in orbit to stick his cover up a tree. Although Ba'al could be petty on occasion…

He ran his hand through his hair, catching a glimpse of movement next door. Oh, she wasn't…

…Following them out into the back yard? Oh, hell yeah.

"…Stepladder'd be great, thanks," he said, catching the last part of the man's question. "So, you plant her yourself?" he asked. It wasn't an old tree by any means.

"Yep. First thing we did when we moved in. Planted a tree together," Rob – Sam had appeared in view long enough to mouth the name at him and laugh at him before disappearing again – answered, bringing a ladder with him, which Jack accepted thankfully, and retrieving his cover, placing it on the rightful place on his head in order to descend.

"Much appreciated, thanks," he told the man gratefully. "Nice to meet you."

888

He reappeared, feeling the oddest sense of déjà vu as he knocked on Sam's door.

"What would you do if I didn't let you in?" she asked, leaning against the door frame and taking in his appearance with a smirk. The shiny shoes were shiny no more, the trousers, admittedly, hadn't fared too badly, but the jacket and cover were distinctly the worse for wear.

"New official camouflage?" she asked, leaning forwards to remove the foliage from his head.

"Funny, Carter, very funny," he responded, soaking his tone with as much sarcasm as possible.

"I thought so," she said turning to go back into the house. "And where's your tie?"

The tie? It was… Oh, crap. "You're kidding me, right?" he demanded of no one in particular.

"Pretty much, yeah," came the response, and Jack turned just in time to see a tie come flying through the air to land on his hands.

"Carter…." He said warningly.

"What?"

"You are… _hot…_ when you do that that, ya know?" he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he realised what he'd said. Way to go, Jack. Blurt that one out there. Real smooth.

She stared at him in mild shock. Okay… she hadn't seen that one coming. That was… She didn't think she'd ever been called hot before. Beautiful, yes. But beautiful was a cold and distant word, and it drove a wedge between her and whoever said it. And she'd been called intelligent, and smart. But those were… androgynous. That was a cold and clinical assessment of her neuronal capabilities, not her. But hot… that was…wow. And now she had no idea what to say.

And he wasn't saying anything, just looking at her expecting… what? Despite being snuggled up to him on a sofa for the vast majority of the afternoon, they hadn't gone beyond casual, and neither of them had acknowledged the fact that his arm had been around her, that when they turned to speak they were barely millimetres away. But he'd just said something. And it was just so typically _Jack_ that really she had no idea what to do.

She took a step closer. "Hey," she said softly.

He watched through eyes that kept darting to everything in the room except her. "Hey."

She took another step. Now they were face to face, and she searched his features, scrutinising it for something that he couldn't define before kissing him softly. It wasn't the big, passionate kiss that she'd thought they might get, when she let her thoughts wander down that way. But it was better than that.

He smelt of trees.

They parted, but didn't separate very far.

"Hey," he said. Sam was perversely relieved that he sounded like it had affected him as it had her.

She smiled. "You said that," she pointed out.

"Yeah…" he said, looking down and spraying her carpet with another leaf form his cover. He smiled back, hands still in his pocket. And suddenly she knew what to say.

"C'mere."


End file.
